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Santa Fe area softball teams get only Indian School announced for 12-school fields that begins state tournament play Wednesday at Rio Rancho Cleveland High
A Northern New Mexico school has never won state in the sport, with Las Vegas Robertson and Las Vegas representing District 2-4A
By Arnie Leshin
Only Santa Fe Indian School made it into the state softball tournament following Sunday’s selections, with 6A Santa Fe High, 5A Capital and 4A St. Michael’s left out.
The Lady Horsemen had been a regular and is the only program from Northern New Mexico to gain the state finals. They lost both times, to Grants and to Bloomfield.
Otherwise, no other school from up this way has gotten this far and through all these years, none have ever won state. Now, the 4A trio of the Braves, Las Vegas Robertson and West Las Vegas, join 5A Los Alamos and 2A Mora have a chance to end this, but don’t bet on it. The Cardinals have an impressive 20-5 record, have won 14 of their last 15, dominated District 2 (12-0) and received a first-round bye.
Regardless of who wins the SFIS-Dons game, Robertson gets the survivor from these two familiar foes. Seventh seeded WLV (15-11) finished second to the Cards in district at 8-4. The Braves, in District 5, came back from an 0-4 start to go 14-9, won their last three starts, and gained the 10th seed.
It’s double-elimination when the 12-school field begins play Wednesday at Rio Rancho Cleveland. There, Las Vegas and SFIS meet up in a scheduled 10:30 start, with the winner facing Robertson at 2:30 p.m. the same day.
The Hilltoppers were awarded the lone spot from District 2 and enter as an 11th seed. They are 18-7 and take on 6th seeded Kirtland Central (17-9) in the first round Thursday at Cleveland at 8:30 a.m. The victor plays next versus 3rd seeded Roswell (18-8) at 12:30 p.m.
St. Michael’s went 7-19 under first-year head coach Billy Perdue, Jr., Capital made an early bid for the post-season under veteran head coach Sig Rivera, but lost some important games down the stretch to finish 11-15. Santa Fe High, under head coach Randy Montoya, posted a 7-18 record.
